Mellanox ConnectX-3 - DL360G8 - PCIe slots

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Stefan75

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Jan 22, 2018
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I'd like to get a HP DL360e G8 and install two cards:
- LSI SAS 9201-16e (x8 gen2, full height)
- Mellanox ConnectX-3 (x8 gen3, low profile)

But the server only has:
- full height PCIe gen3 x16 (x16 slot)
- low profile PCIe gen2 x4 (x8 slot)

Will the ConnectX-3 work if it only has gen2 x4 and what will the max speed be?
 

Stefan75

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Jan 22, 2018
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The MCX311A-XCAT specs seem quite nice:
PCIe Base 3.0 compliant, 1.1 and 2.0 compatible
2.5, 5.0, or 8.0GT/s link rate x8
Auto-negotiates to x8, x4, x2, or x1

I just read that PCIe gen2 x4 can do 2 GByte/s so that should be just enough for bi directional 10Gbit :)
 
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Stefan75

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Jan 22, 2018
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My SC846 has 20 SATA disks (Snapraid for parity).
First I used an old HP SAS expander but then switched to two IBM expanders (12 disks each).
So currently I'm only using half of the 9201-16e SAS ports.
I would have a NetApp DS4243 lying around, but its QSFP connecter annoyed me ;)
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
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The MCX311A-XCAT specs seem quite nice:
PCIe Base 3.0 compliant, 1.1 and 2.0 compatible
2.5, 5.0, or 8.0GT/s link rate x8
Auto-negotiates to x8, x4, x2, or x1

I just read that PCIe gen2 x4 can do 2 GByte/s so that should be just enough for bi directional 10Gbit :)
PCIe is bidirectional, so when you see it's 2Gbyte/s aggregate, that's in both directions at once, so more than enough
 
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AndreiL

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Jun 30, 2019
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I'd like to get a HP DL360e G8 and install two cards:
- LSI SAS 9201-16e (x8 gen2, full height)
- Mellanox ConnectX-3 (x8 gen3, low profile)

But the server only has:
- full height PCIe gen3 x16 (x16 slot)
- low profile PCIe gen2 x4 (x8 slot)

Will the ConnectX-3 work if it only has gen2 x4 and what will the max speed be?
I'd recommend going for HP DL360p G8. These have a proprietary slot for network cards and you can get those pretty cheap on ebay. That way you'll preserve the 2 PCIe slots for other expansion needs.

I've gotten these pretty cheaply: 717491-B21 or 728992-B21
 
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